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WSJ: "President Barack Obama offered his strongest support to date for Iran's political opposition and youth, a sign of how the U.S. is seeking to use the democratic surge sweeping the Middle East to intensify pressure on Tehran's leadership. Mr. Obama has addressed the Iranian people annually on the Persian New Year, known as Nowruz. His 2009 address was notable in that he called for political dialogue between the U.S. and Iran's clerical rulers, and referred to their country as the Islamic Republic of Iran, the first time an American president has used this moniker. Mr. Obama's Nowruz speech this year, however, didn't renew his call for engagement with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government and, instead, sharply criticized Tehran's human-rights abuses. Mr. Obama also for the first time personally mentioned the names of dissidents detained in Iranian prisons-seen as increasing the pressure on Tehran not to harm them. 'So far, the Iranian government has responded by demonstrating that it cares more about preserving its own power than respecting the rights of the Iranian people,' Mr. Obama said in a video message that was beamed into Iran and translated into Farsi. 'These choices do not demonstrate strength, they show fear.'" http://t.uani.com/dO4sZ0
AP: "U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton warned Iran on Saturday to stop meddling in Bahrain and other Arab states in the Persian Gulf, but also called on the kingdom's leaders not to use force against anti-government protesters. Clinton said the United States 'has an abiding commitment to Gulf security' and that 'a top priority is working together with our partners on our shared concerns about Iranian behavior in the region.' 'We share the view that Iran's activities in the Gulf, including its efforts to advance its agenda in neighboring countries, undermines peace and stability,' she told reporters after an international conference on the crisis in Libya. At that meeting, she met with numerous Arab officials who complained that Iran was fomenting unrest Bahrain and elsewhere." http://t.uani.com/hwioHr
AFP: "Iran on Sunday asked a Bahraini diplomat to leave the country in reprisal for the expulsion of one of the Islamic republic's diplomats from Manama, the official IRNA news agency reported. 'After the illogical and incomprehensible actions of the Bahrain government, especially expelling one of our diplomats, as a reprisal the attache at Bahrain's embassy has been summoned and told that one of the embassy's diplomats must leave Iran,' foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said. 'Responding to the legitimate demands of the population guarantees the stability and permanence of governments, while the repression of peaceful protests and illogical actions only aggravate the crisis and deepen wounds,' he said. Iran on Wednesday recalled its ambassador from Bahrain 'in protest at the killing of the people of Bahrain by its government,' a day after Manama recalled its ambassador from Tehran, citing Iran's 'blatant interference' in its affairs." http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=hfdiftcab&t=pgw7vafab.0.e4xjwafab.hfdiftcab.30860&ts=S0596&p=http%3A%2F%2Ft.uani.com%2Fgx2mjS%2520
Nuclear Program & Sanctions
Reuters: "India-focused refiner and power generator Essar Energy's oil imports from Iran have not been hit despite the scrapping of payments through the existing mechanism, its chief executive officer said on Monday. 'The agreement with Iran is still on. It is normally on calendar-year basis. We'll renew it when required,' Naresh Nayyar told a conference call. Iran is India's second-biggest oil supplier after Saudi Arabia and has not stopped shipping oil to India despite the scrapping of payments through the Asian Clearing Union (ACU)." http://t.uani.com/fXELL9
Reuters: "An Iranian cargo plane was forced to land in southeast Turkey for the second time within a week on suspicion it was carrying weapons or bomb-making material to Syria, Turkish media reported Sunday. The plane which took off from Tehran landed overnight at Diyarbakir airport and searches took place Sunday, broadcaster CNN Turk said. Last Tuesday night another plane was similarly forced to land at Diyarbakir but departed the following day after a search squad trained in chemical, biological, radioactive and nuclear cargo found nothing illegal. Turkey's Foreign Ministry and airport authorities declined to comment. A ministry spokesman said after last week's plane grounding the search was routine." http://t.uani.com/fCwRDM
Human Rights
AFP: "A son of top opposition figure Mehdi Karroubi said he met up with his father at the family home after a separation of more than five weeks, denying he was in jail, an Iranian opposition website reported late on Friday. 'After 38 days of having been deprived of meeting my father and my mother, I was able to see them at their apartment,' Mohammad Taghi Karroubi wrote on his personal blog, the website Kaleme.com said. Mehdi Karroubi and his wife Fatemeh were put under 'complete' house arrest in early February after calling for an anti-regime protest to take place in the middle of that month. But opposition websites reported at the end of February that Karroubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi, another top figure in the opposition movement, had been jailed." http://t.uani.com/fr6kIx
Domestic Politics
AFP: "Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called on Monday for an all-out 'economic Jihad' in the year ahead to foil enemy plots, as Iranians celebrated Nowruz, the Persian new year. 'These sanctions that the enemies of the Iranian nation have planned or implemented are intended to strike a blow to the progress of our country, or impede its accelerating progress,' Khamenei said in a message broadcast on state television. His speech came as Iranian family members gathered around the Haft Seen, a traditional table with seven items starting with the letter 'S,' meant to welcome happiness, health and prosperity in the new year. 'However, (the enemies) could not achieve the goal they had sought to come out of these sanctions... thanks to policies of our officials and the cooperation of the nation,' Khamenei said. 'For this reason, I declare this year as the year of economic Jihad,' he said adding that he expected officials and the people to act accordingly." http://t.uani.com/fI3aZh
AFP: "Ebrahim Yazdi, the 80-year-old head of a banned liberal party who was arrested last October 1, was released from prison on Sunday, state news agency IRNA reported. Yazdi, a former foreign minister, was arrested in the city of Isfahan along with several other members of the Freedom Movement of Iran. He was also detained in June 2009 during a wave of unrest which followed the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that the opposition in the Islamic republic said was the result of massive fraud. IRNA also said Yazdi, who served in the first government following the 1979 Islamic revolution that overthrew the shah, had announced his resignation as head of his party, without giving a reason." http://t.uani.com/gFKoPM
Foreign Affairs
AP: "Bahrain's king blamed a foreign plot for his nation's weeks-long unrest, using veiled language Monday to accuse Iran of fomenting an uprising by the Shiite majority in the Sunni-ruled island kingdom. The Bahrain opposition's main demand is for a constitutional monarchy that would keep the royal family in power but would let people elect a government. Inspired by mass protests in Tunisia and Egypt that toppled the two countries' presidents, it rejects accusations of influence by the Shiite powerhouse across the Persian Gulf. 'We don't want Iranians to come. We don't want a big problem in this small country,' senior opposition leader Ali Salman said Sunday, adding that the solution to the country's crisis has to come from its people." http://t.uani.com/g9huD6
AFP: "Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry on Saturday slammed 'attacks' on its diplomatic missions in Iran, a day after Iranian protesters reportedly threw stones at a Saudi consulate. 'The kingdom strongly condemns the attacks against its diplomatic missions' in Iran, the ministry said in a statement. 'The Iranian government carries full responsibility for protecting Saudi missions on its territory.' Nearly 700 people gathered outside a consulate in the northeastern city of Mashhad on Friday to protest 'the killing of Muslims' by Bahraini security forces backed by Saudi and Emirati units, Iran's Khorasan newspaper said." http://t.uani.com/eIkIpS
Opinion & Analysis
Roger Noriega in WashPost: "President Obama's trip to South America has showcased promising partnerships in Brazil and elsewhere. His visit, however, should also focus attention in the region and within his administration on the fact that Iran and Venezuela are conspiring to sow Tehran's brand of proxy terrorism in the Western Hemisphere. On Aug. 22, 2010, at Iran's suggestion, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez hosted senior leaders of Hamas, Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) in a secret summit at military intelligence headquarters at the Fuerte Tiuna compound in southern Caracas. Among those present were Palestinian Islamic Jihad Secretary General Ramadan Abdullah Mohammad Shallah, who is on the FBI's list of most-wanted terrorists; Hamas's 'supreme leader,' Khaled Meshal; and Hezbollah's 'chief of operations,' whose identity is a closely guarded secret. The idea for this summit sprang from a meeting between Iran's ambassador to Syria, Ahmad Mousavi, and his Venezuelan counterpart, Imad Saab Saab, at the Venezuelan embassy in Damascus on May 10, 2010. According to the report received by Venezuela's foreign minister, the two envoys were discussing a meeting between their presidents and Hezbollah's leader, Hasan Nasrallah, when the Iranian suggested that the three meet Chavez in Caracas. That these infamous criminals left their traditional havens demonstrates their confidence in Chavez and their determination to cultivate a terror network on America's doorstep... The danger posed by a network of terrorists in the Americas is very real. Last May, Muhammad Saif-ur-Rehm Khan, a Pakistani applying for a U.S. visa at the American Embassy in Santiago, Chile, was detained after guards detected traces of bomb-making materials on his hands. U.S. officials discovered Khan's link to the Islamist group Jamaat al-Tabligh. It is not clear how much they shared with Chilean investigators. Lacking evidence to prosecute Khan, Chilean authorities released him in January, and he left the country bound for Turkey... A Venezuelan government source has told me that two Iranian terrorist trainers are on Venezuela's Margarita Island instructing operatives who have assembled from around the region. In addition, radical Muslims from Venezuela and Colombia are brought to a cultural center in Caracas named for the Ayatollah Khomeini and Simon Bolivar for spiritual training, and some are dispatched to Qom, Iran, for Islamic studies. Knowledgeable sources confirm that the most fervent recruits in Qom are given weapons and explosives training and are returned home as 'sleeper' agents." http://t.uani.com/hlK50N
Charles Ferguson in the Arms Control Association: "During more than eight years of a political tug-of-war over Iran's nuclear program, the United States and its allies have yet to reach agreement with Tehran. Iranian leaders repeatedly have demanded recognition of their country's 'right' to enrich uranium and pursue peaceful nuclear energy. The United States has insisted that Iran suspend enrichment activities as well as construction of a heavy-water research reactor until Iran addresses concerns about the intended nature of these activities and gives the international community confidence that Tehran will not make nuclear weapons. Numerous proposals from each side have failed to break this impasse. Recently, however, the increasing effects of multilateral sanctions on Iran's economy and nuclear program have given rise to some hope from the United States for a negotiated settlement. The route to a negotiated agreement is highly uncertain because the two sides have ideal outcomes that appear diametrically opposed. Ideally, the United States would want Iran to cease uranium enrichment because even a relatively small enrichment plant would provide Tehran with a latent capability to make weapons-usable uranium. This technology is dual use in that an enrichment plant can be used to make low-enriched uranium (LEU) for nuclear fuel or highly enriched uranium (HEU) for nuclear bombs. (The dividing line between LEU and HEU is uranium enriched to 20 percent in the fissile isotope uranium-235. The higher the enrichment of U-235, the more useful the material is for nuclear weapons.) If there were no enrichment plants in Iran, the United States would have an easier verification task than if it had to monitor a permitted, known enrichment capacity to ensure that it was not being used as cover for clandestine enrichment plants. In contrast, Tehran's ideal situation is to continue improving its enrichment capacity so that it conceivably could make several bombs' worth of HEU annually if its leaders chose to do so. Reaching agreement for Iran to stop enriching uranium, however, appears politically impossible for the foreseeable future. Despite the increasing pressure of sanctions, Iranian leaders have demonstrated during the theocracy's 32 years of existence that they will cling tightly to instruments of power that they believe are vital to their state's security. A top instrument of power is the nuclear program. Concomitantly, this program has become a highly nationalistic issue. Thus, the Iranian leadership most likely would do everything in its power to maintain this program. Faced with this political reality, the United States, its partners, and Iran need to be prepared to understand the options for enhanced safeguards that would provide the necessary international confidence for continued uranium enrichment in Iran." http://t.uani.com/icWzfr
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